Red Sox winners again!

When I first moved to Boston six years ago, I had no idea what I was really getting into. My airline ticket said Boston but we were going to live in Cambridge. Which was the same really, just across the river right? It didn't take long to figure out that the two cities, only separated by a river, are actually quite different. But the one thing that both cities agree on is a shared love for the Red Sox. Though, I'm sure a die hard Sox fan can make the distinction between a Cambridge Red Sox fan and one from a Boston neighborhood. The Broncos are loved in Denver, in college I was a true Buffs fan, but coming to Boston was an entirely different experience with the Red Sox. The Red Sox mean more to the city of Boston than the Statue of Liberty does to NYC. For the longest time, the city viewed the Red Sox as that younger sibling who has so much potential but always found a way to self destruct.

Its impossible to relate to the 86 year drought, having only just arrived to the area. But I seem to fit in now that the Red Sox are two time world champs in four years, as its a new experience for everyone in Red Sox Nation! I heard a commentator this morning use the word 'dynasty' to describe the Red Sox and their future potential. I can't imagine any Red Sox fan, past or future, ever using that word to describe their team. The 2007 and 2004 championships are sweet to be sure, but I for one, think the best series was the 2004 ALCS comeback against the Yankees. It was a microcosm of everything that the Red Sox were in the previous 86 years and everything they've been since. The themes of 'On the brink of elimination', 'Always losing to the Yankees' and 'always the underdog to the Yankees' were all a part of that series. So when the Red Sox came back to win in Game 7 it was thrilling, and as though the city's younger sibling had finally turned the corner. This year's ALCS against the Indians didn't have the same emotional impact, though the results were the same. Nothing brings out the worst/best in a Red Sox fan than playing the Yankees.

The 2007 Red Sox were unlike any other Red Sox team, they had the best record in the league, potential AL MVP, and they won the World Series. Not since Babe Ruth played baseball have the Red Sox been this good!

Summer Reading

Just got done reading Black Swan Green by David Mitchell. A fantastic book! And well worth adding to your list. Its about Jason Taylor, a 13 yeard old kid who lives in England during the late 80s. The book covers one year of Jason's life and each chapter is dedicated to a different month. Reading it, I felt like David had just turned 14 and decided to write a book about being 13. It was real on a level that captures what being 13 felt like.

Also I just finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. While it took me about a week to complete, I heard some had completed it within a day of receiving the book! Its as good as the rest of the series, no let down but definitely darker. Of course once you figure out that Harry....... :) Nah I won't spoil it for the few who haven't finished reading it yet. Triniwife and I each got our own copy because well we couldn't agree on who would read it first!

Wii Haaa!!

I just received my brand new Wii! Purchased from Walmart.com with a couple of bundled games and an extra controller. So far the wii-rience has been great! You can actually work up a sweat doing the boxing, though that might be because I don't go to the gym much..... I'll have to get some wii-cessories such as a neoprene sleeve for the controllers. I'm sure the nice white controllers will get dirty over time.


I bought Big Brain Academy, Marvel Alliance and Super Paper Mario. Though I can't wait for Madden 2008 to come out as its expected to have some enhancements to take advantage of the wii-motes. Haven't tested out these games as yet though. Only tried the Sports disk that comes with the Wii. It includes Tennis, Boxing and a couple others. Should be good fun at parties as they are easy to play, though Trini-wife can't seem to play virtual tennis any better than regular tennis.

Have you moved a house before?

We've ll had to move from one residence to another in our life. At Harvard Law School though they're actually moving the whole house!



And this video gives a little background on the subject.

Really Big Mango

Mango
Originally uploaded by GianJ

We bought this huge mango at our local supermarket not to long ago. The sticker said it was from Nicaragua, and cost $1.25. Mangoes are just so expensive in the US. In Trinidad I can get 3-4 mangoes for the same $1.25. Next to the mango is a grapefruit and a regular size can of lentils.

Not very many people know this, but a green mango cut into pieces, served cold with salt, black pepper, lime, lemon, pepper sauce (if you have it), chopped jalapeño and diced garlic all mixed together makes for a super snack!

Trini-wife insists on eating the mango ripe, because its sweeter. Trini's know where its at though, nothing beats a green mango chow, 'cept perhaps a green plum chow!

Memorable Quote

Its not often I find myself reading a magazine and the author's words stand out as being profound. But reading this month's Nick Hornby monthly column 'Stuff I've been reading' in Believer magazine, I found a line that stood out from Nick's always entertaining column.

"... I found myself wondering whether the complication of language is in inverse proportion to the size of the subject under discussion."

You can follow the link to see the whole article, but the context of Nick's observation was comparing two author styles around the use of the word 'death' and the author's topic. One author used death in reference to her country plagued by corruption, terrorism and despotism. The other author uses it to describe bored spouses in a middle-class marriage. I haven't read either book, so I'll take Nick's description at face value.

But really I find that today especially in the business world we often try to make things sound bigger, more important and vital to the health of the business by using language that hides the true meaning of what it is we're trying to accomplish. The flip side is IMing, texting or other new forms of communication. Here even the most important events are whittled down to as few characters as possible. Checkout the Wikipedia entry on SMS.

Of course the lone exception to this is the US Government. They manage to make both the simplest and most complex issues sound simultaneously trite & insignificant and important & impossible to comprehend.

SEND

Oh dear, has it really been almost two months since I posted to my blog. My only excuse is that I recently changed job roles at work and have been concentrating on that. However, I'm back now.

I just got done reading Send: The Essential Guide to Email for Office and Home by David Shipley and Will Schwalbe. A fantastic read on how to make the most of email. I, like most of you have used email for a long time, though I don't think I ever went through some sort of formal class or training on how to write email. In school we learn about spelling, grammar, how to write an essay, research papers, how to footnote, reference and all manner of rules and styles around formal writing. But email it seems we take for granted.

Its assumed that everyone knows the rules for using email and how to use it effectively. When was the last time you saw a class at your university or provided through your employer on writing effective email? It seems odd, because in today's high tech world we spend large volumes of time in front of the computer writing email, using IM and texting.

The authors of Send, David and Will, are editors for the NY Times and Hyperion Books respectively. Their book provides lots of insight and is written in a very easy to understand and humorous tone.

One of the things I never used except on rare occasions was the Exclamation Point '!'. I always felt it tended to overstate things. However the authors think that because conveying affect in email is difficult, an exclamation point can help to make your email more human. For example 'Thanks' vs 'Thanks!' or 'Hooray' vs 'Hooray!'. Without the exclamation point each word sounds kinda flat and almost sarcastic.

There are lots of other such examples and tips in the book, so I highly recommend you read it if you use email for work, or for general correspondence with friends and family.

Indiana vs NYC

For my job I get to see some of the more interesting parts of the US. Places such as Topeka KS, GreenBay WI, Des Moines IA and most recently Columbus IN. Not that there is anything bad about these places, the people were friendly and those native to the area would never dream of living anywhere else. But I guess since I've lived in a variety of places in the US and around the world it seems weird to want to live your whole life in a single small city in under populated parts of the US. Of those I talked to, many stated reasons were that it was safe to raise a family, their own family lived in the area, if they moved elsewhere it would only be for 1-2 years before they came back so why bother going at all. They accepted that there were less activities to do as compared to a big city but they could always go there on vacation. They have lived their whole life in a single place and couldn't dream of leaving it. This applies to those in big cities too. I have friends and family that live in New York city, having grown up or lived there most of their adult lives and have no intention of leaving the Big Apple. What would be the purpose? Everything they need and could want is available to them in NYC or they can go on vacation to see the rest of the world.

One of the fun things to do when visiting these places is to checkout local food oddities. One such food item I found in Columbus IN, was the Gnaw Bone pork tenderloin sandwich. Its a large, and lightly breaded piece of tenderloin. It was pretty good but could have used some pepper sauce.


Recently I visited NYC and went to Katz's Deli, its the one from the movie 'When Sally Met Harry'. This wikipedia article can fill you in. I had the salami sandwich which was just great. The plate of pickles was an interesting side dish, though I only had 2 of the 12 pieces that I got.

Two great sandwiches from two very different places. Hopefully you get the chance to experience both. So what city do you call home and would you ever move from it? Why or why not? And is there a special food item unique to your area?

Frozen in Cambridge

Winter has come to Cambridge with a vengeance. Too bad as I was really enjoying the mild winter in December. We've gotten some snow and wind, oh the wind. And recently we've had some arctic air come down over Cambridge and drop temperatures in the single digits with wind chills in the negatives. On a recent trip to Indiana I missed the cold weather in Cambridge only to get some freezing rain in Indiana. The pictures are from the next day and yes the entire tree is coated in ice, it might look like water dripping of the tree, but trust me its ice. All of the trees in Columbus IN were coated, making it look like Christmas again.

RSS & Reading Blogs

If you've found that you like to read blogs, except you can't always find the time to go visit all your favorite blogs. Well one answer is to get a feed reader or other blog aggregator that will get the most recent posts from all your favorite blogs and either put them on a single webpage or will email you the latest entries.There are many aggregators out there, I think the most popular is Google Reader and there are some that plugin to your favorite browser such as Sage for FireFox.

However, if you are inside a company firewall and there are internal company blogs you like to read, some of the external readers such as Google Reader or Yahoo may not work. Also if, like me, you spend the majority of your day in Outlook, then finding a reader that plugs-in to Outlook can be useful. I have found, and use, RSS Popper. Which is free and adds another folder in your Inbox to collect the various blog feeds. It also works great with internal blogs and external blogs.

You can get feeds from a blog by subscribing to the blog's RSS / Atom feed. Using RSS Popper to subscribe to a blog's feed is a simple matter of copying the RSS link and pasting it into the correct RSS Popper field and clicking OK. You may have seen Atom on a blog page, it is just another method that a blog author/ blog site can use to syndicate their blogs. Both RSS and Atom are transparent to you the reader and as a reader, you only care about the RSS/Atom link. The feed for this site is: http://feeds.feedburner.com/RandomThoughtsFromATrini

So go out and start gathering your favorite feeds into your favorite feed reader.

Poor Grapefruit, Good Callaloo

I'm not sure on the optimum way of removing the peel from a grapefruit, but I'm pretty sure Trini-wife's way is not it. At the end of the process there was more juice in the container than left in the grapefruit! She did make some great callaloo (green stuff) for a dinner party though. The dhalpuri roti (yellow stuff) was purchased from Ali's Roti Shop in Dorchester. Actual Callaloo leaves are hard to come by in Boston, although a local farmer's market has it from time to time. So she substituted spinach instead which does the job just fine. Here's a recipe, you can skip the crab part and add some cubed squash instead.

Err

Err and Ignignokt caused much stress and confusion for some and fun for others in the city of Boston this week. On Wednesday there were bomb reports all over the city that devices which contained components of IEDs were placed on bridges and buildings in the city. I-93, the major interstate thru Boston was shut down for a period along with several bridges, major roads around the city and the subway as bomb squads removed the offending devices.
However, the devices turned out to be nothing more than a bunch of LEDs on a circuit board with some Duracell D batteries. Any why were they placed there? All part of a viral marketing stunt gone wrong, for the Cartoon Network's Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Turner Broadcasting owned up to the scheme and offered to pay the city's costs. Funny or Serious?

Here's what I found interesting about the whole thing:

• The 'devices' were in place for 2-3 weeks before being found on Wednesday, if they were actual bombs then that doesn't say much for our post 9-11 security.
• They shoot a water cannon at the 'device' to disable it. Umm very high tech.
• Now some folks in other cities where the ad campaign didn't create a huge public scare are selling the devices on ebay for about $600.
• The blogs and other internet sources had it figured out by about noon. Yet the authorities continued their efforts through 5pm. Timeline.
  

While you can't fault the Boston authorities for doing what they did, since they have to take every threat seriously, a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation. Prosecuting the two guys who were responsible for putting up the signs seems a little overzealous since their intent was not malicious.

Its not like incidents like this have not happened before. The Orson Wells War of the Worlds radio cast in 1938 certainly caused quite a stir. Let's hope future events are as benign as this one.

Birds

After my recent trip to Trinidad, it would appear I have bee bitten by the bird watching bug. While in San Jose I saw this humming bird taking a bath in a water fountain. Not sure what kind it is, but it seemed very interested in the water.

San Francisco

This past week I went out to San Jose and managed to go out to dinner in San Francisco with a friend of mine who I hadn't seen in well over a year! Anyway it was fun catching up with him. Its always fun driving around SF what with all the hills some of them are quite steep. Parking on a hill is a very interesting process. We went out to dinner at Zarzuela, a restaurant that my wife and I visited once upon a time when we were still dating. The food this time around was not as great as I remembered. Not sure if I changed or the place did. Just across from the restaurant was a Swensen's an icecream shop that I was not familiar with. My friend however couldn't wait to go for dessert. Apparently he is a big fan but the one near his house closed and now he has to go without. So we went and he got his favorite flavor, Swiss Orange Chip.
Certainly looks just yummy, however it tastes like Orange and Chocolate, which I guess is the point. I guess I should state , I'm not a fan of fruit and chocolate so this was really really bad. However, my friend thoroughly enjoyed it. And I guess he's not the only one. Someone actually set out to recreate this stuff . To each his own I guess.

Not enough humans?

Recently I was watching PBS, NOVA scienceNOW, on a Friday night I believe. Yeah nerd right? So anyway Neil deGrasse Tyson who hosts the show, and who I think is really great at breaking down the whole astro-physics-space-time-string-theory thing, introduces a story about bacteria. The story is about Bonnie Bassler aka the Bacteria Whisperer. Mrs Bassler has discovered some really cool ways in which bacteria communicate. She says that there are 600 types of bacteria on your teeth each morning! Yuck. (err no honey its not the morning breath, its the billion bacteria). And that the bacteria communicate with each other using some molecular compounds. And that these compounds are used by all types of bacteria. The interesting thing she showed is that in some bio-luminescent bacteria, they don't begin to glow until there are enough of them in place. Too little and they just sit there, but after some magic number of generations have grown and are 'talking', they all begin to glow at the same time. Its this 'talking' that makes you sick. So now she's on a hunt to find ways to limit their capacity to communicate and reduce our dependence on harsh antibiotics. Its a completely fascinating topic; as bacteria go anyway.

So it got me wondering, what if there aren't enough humans in the world 'talking'? What if we're all just waiting around for the human population to get large enough that something clicks and we begin to do our equivalent of 'glowing'. I know we're supposed to be all about reducing the human population growth. But maybe there's more for us out-there, we just need more of us.

I was also wondering if we are covered by so much bacteria, is it possible that we are not affected by them in some imperceptible ways? A recent article in the Economist talks about the recent science on the brain and the questions raised on Free Will. If bacteria make up so much of what we are, and they communicate, is it possible that also affect who we are? If the brain is as easy to manipulate as described in the article and our personality along with it, perhaps we are more creatures of a bacterial mind than we think.

I also recently watched a documentary on one of the DVDs that came with my Ultimate Matrix DVD set. Thanks Trini-wife! Anyway the material got me excited about the Matrix again, they show that there was so much more philosophy about Free Will and other concepts in the Matrix. Much more than I realized.

What do you think about Free Will?

Children of Men

I saw the movie Children of Men this weekend. Trini-wife and I decided on the spur of the moment to go see a movie and after looking at what was available, picked it as it got an 84 from Metacritic. An excellent score for a movie. We didn't know anything about it (deciding to skip reading the reviews). All that mattered (at the time) was that my wife saw Clive Owen was starring in it and so she was sold.

Good thing too, having seen the movie first and then reading the reviews after; I would recommend you not read any of the reviews as they may bias or tell you things about the movie that may ruin it. Needless to say its well worth the high reviews. Clive Owen is funny and believable throughout the movie, Michael Caine steals the show in parts and the cinematography is spectacular! Its probably worth watching for the camera work alone.

Its based on the book of the same name by P.D. James. And there are some parts I wish the movie expanded upon so I'm not sure if this was a failing in the book too. If you liked V for Vendetta then you'll probably like this movie. It also reminds me of 28 Days Later. Ok, that's all I can tell you without going into more detail on the movie.

Go see it, tell me what you think.

Too Many Books

A friend of mine recently gave me a copy of The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby as a Christmas gift. Its a collection of Nick Hornby's essays for the Believer Magazine. In the essays he writes about the books he has read for that month. He also tells you what books he bought and intended to read but didn't.

In reading the reviews and Nick's often funny and sarcastic insights, I found the Spree to be just what I wanted. Something fun, but still informative but not Business Book / Non-Fiction informative. It was liberating to see that my wife and I aren't the only ones who buy books and then let them sit on the book shelves; Unopened and silently mocking us every time we walk by. The intention is always there to read the books, its just that cleaning lint from the dryer always seems to come first. Well at least Nick has an excuse, he does this for a living and can be forgiven for not reading all the books he buys. We are just busy with laundry.

Of course what the Spree gives in redemption, can also lead to downfall. I've gained two more titles to read (and added to my Amazon Wish list) after reading the reviews. They are Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc. This looks to be just a downer of a book but still moving. The other is How Mumbo-jumbo Conquered The World by Francis Wheen. A look at the lack of reason and enlightenment in today's world. Of course I also signed up for the Believer magazine too, can't wait to add that to the magazine pile in the corner.

Nick also likes Charles Dickens a lot and it made me think about reading the classics. You know other authors like Dickens, such as T.S. Elliott, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf and so on. But there's only so much room on the bookshelf and the damn lint won't clean itself you know.

Anyway, do you remember the last book you read? Who the main characters were and what happened to them?... Yes? Well look at you with the big brain... Nick mentions that he doesn't always remember what he read. I guess excusable for a book reviewer, not so much for someone like me, but I must say not all books are worth remembering. And I'm sure there are more of those 'read and forget' people like me out there. Be proud, we have the benefit of being able to read a good book like it was new again.... and again..... and again..... well hopefully its stuck by the 3rd reading.

Now I must get back to my laundry.

P.S. Did you see the title of the latest Harry Potter book is out?

Fauna in Trinidad

Visiting my uncle's couple of acres in 'the country' in Tabaquite I came across this caterpillar. Not sure what kind it is but looks pretty unfriendly with the spikes. It was small though about 2 inches long.



While in Trinidad I was able to visit the Asa Wright Nature Center that is located in the Trinidad Northern range. Here the center is able to show lots and lots of birds to avid bird watchers in their natural habitat. During our visit we saw about 15 different species, which is pretty good considering we got there later in the day when most birds are in the shade. One of the more notable birds was the Bell Bird. It makes a really odd sound much like a bell. The following two videos show it in action.

Happy New Year!

Well its a new year and I went on vacation to Trinidad and Tobago, sort of visit the homeland. It had been two years since my last visit to T&T so I was due. I had a great time and chose not to check email or post to my blog or surf the web for the two weeks. Although I must confess I did check my Fantasy football scores. For those who care, I lost in the championship game in one league and placed 6th in another league. Well there's always next year I guess.

Anyway happy new year! Where did you ring in the new year? I was in Tobago at Pelican Reef with my family. There was a live singer and DJ with an odd mix of songs from U2 to Soca to Reggae to 80s classics. We did the count down thing and then went to bed around 1 AM.


We started off 2007 on Pigeon Point beach. If you go to Trinidad and/or Tobago make sure to spend a day at Pigeon Point, its the best part of the islands. My wife and I now want to end 2007 on a beach somewhere, to make a nice bookend to the year. I've posted some pics from T&T on Flickr.

Its funny how when you haven't seen members of your extended family for a while how they say you've changed. As far as I know I haven't changed much since the last time I saw them. But I got conflicting accounts. One aunt said 'I lost weight', another said 'I gained weight'. A cousin said I look more like my mom now, but an uncle said I looked more like my dad. Still other members said I looked younger while some claimed I looked older. I was even quizzed on my hair style (which hasn't changed in years), 'Was it new?' All of this makes you wonder if its worth the effort to make yourself presentable in public, after all it appears people see what they want to see regardless of what you do (or don't do).